Pricing is Everything

So, here’s the story. I have done some research on Realtors in the Tuolumne County area and *SPOILER ALERT* some are better than others. I basically researched a couple of the Realtors that I perceive as always overpricing their listings, and what I found was staggering. One of the Realtors that consistently overpriced their listings (IN MY OPINION) was only able to sell about 30-50% of their listings. This is a top agent in our county.

Read That Again.

So, this Realtor would literally take 50 listings and out of all that time spent marketing and trying to sell…they would actually sell 25-35. Can you imagine the person who lists with them knowing this information? If I was trying to sell my house, and the realtor wasn’t honest about what I could get for it, then how would I move forward to sell it in actuality?

Now, I know what you are thinking. You’re thinking…ya but the customer is being unreasonable about the price. The problem is that the realtor STILL TOOK THE LISTING. If a potential seller is being unreasonable, I think that I would consider rejecting the listing. Why? Because I am going to put time into it! I can’t justify my time and money spent to help a property if there is no plan for the seller to bring it into the reality of an accurate selling price.

If you wonder why a client would overprice their house, this article from realtor.com is a good primer for understanding the psychology of overpricing. In sonora real estate we run into this all the time.

The hard part is getting a seller to understand why not to overprice. As a result we lose listings sometimes- which might be a blessing as it saves us lots of time in the end.